The odd fire truck continues to roam the area near Tulka on the Eyre Peninsula, as fire crews monitor the 1,850 hectares blackened by this week's blaze.

Cooler weather has brought relief for the firefight, but the battle has just begun for residents and property owners affected by the fire.

"I've lost everything," said Nick Demchinsky, standing alongside one of the cabins burnt out in his Sleaford Bay Holiday Park.

Based in Brisbane, Nick was 'absolutely devastated' to see footage of the bushfire creeping up to his the park on TV, and this week he's arrived to witness the damage first hand.

"To be here, to smell it, to see the smouldering piles still going, to see what's happened is absolutely amazing."

14 cabins were destroyed by the blaze, which also burnt a house, sheds, farmland, and several other vehicles in the area.

In Nick's case, he's facing around a million dollars of damage and loss, and no insurance to help cover this.

He said the park was not merely an interstate investment property, but had been in the family for more than 40 years, and housed a lifetime of his personal property.

"I've got family all over the country that have been ringing and are very very sad that it's gone, it's now clean up time and time to move forward.

"Everything I've possibly owned was all here and stored here, in our storage cabin, the main cabin, and the main shed up on the hill there."

His lost possessions range from teenage trophies and schoolbooks, to photos, stereo equipment and musical instruments.

"I guess the saving grace is the hall is still here, so my piano is still here. But that's it, that's all I own today.

"At the end of the day, its only material objects that we've lost and everyone else is safe, but it's still quite devastating."

A narrow fire escape

Just up the dirt road, Thomas McNab stands on the balcony of his resort, looking out over the million-dollar view of Sleaford Bay, now blackened from the bushfires.

Luckier than Nick, he was able to stop the fire engulfing his holiday house.

"We've been lucky before, but it's one of those things I suppose, eventually you live out in these sort of remote areas and you've just got to put up with that and that could happen anytime."

But he hasn't avoided the sleeplessness, stress, and incessant smell of smoke that that lingers from the natural disaster.

"We've just got to piece together, and take one day at a time, and try to work out how we can get this place back up and running."

Thomas fought the blaze with a small firefighting unit as it roared all around his holiday home on Sunday, but he says it was pure luck that stopped the fire meters around his home.

"It's just the fact that where the fire front came from the house is relatively cleared with a big lawn area and off to the side of that a big parking area with stones."

In hindsight, Thomas is just thankful the life threatening choice to save the house paid off.

"It's very daunting having the sound of a roaring fire rustling around you from different directions, it's something that you'd never forget."

But the family worries and insurance companies are not all that's left to deal with after the fire, the environmental damage also hits a raw nerve for affected locals.

"Seeing the dead koalas that are that close to the edge of the bush out the back of the driveway and around the place, it's really sad.

"And just lizards that you have, it's just not a good day for the wildlife when they go through fire."

Stories follow the flames

Back in the caravan park, long term resident Ron Keogh roams around the back of his still standing cabin, listening to the grunts of surviving koalas.

"They'll all be stressed to the max the poor things."

Speaking with Ron, it's clear that smouldering trees, his neighbours flattened cabins, and wounded wildlife is not all the bushfire left- there's a whole bunch of stories that also remain in the flames' wake.

"One day ends another one starts, take the cards you're dealt don't you," says Ron, as he launches into humour filled tales of the ordeal.

From within his huge white beard spouts all sorts of yarns about his bushfire experience, beginning with the one about his salad.

"I was sitting down having a salad, and it was a really nice salad and I put a lot of effort into that salad, I chopped up celery and beetroot, you know all the good things.

"Bugger if I'm gonna let this stupid bit of smoke scare me off my food, so I sat there and ate it."

He explained that after other residents had long evacuated to the beach, he eventually got on his Harley Davidson, in his shorts, and rode out through the smoke - 'like a superstar'.

But like the other residents trying to stay upbeat after the fire, even Ron couldn't hide how frightening the bushfire experience was.

"Oh all right I was scared, who wouldn't be scared, it's a 20-foot wall of flame coming towards you.